o retch, and soon
vomited a large quantity of clotted blood. After a time he began to
whisper a few words.

"Cheer up, my lad," said the captain in a kindly voice, as he went down
on one knee beside the prostrate man; "don't attempt to speak or exert
yourself in any way. You'll be all right in a few days. We'll have
your dress taken off and send you below, where you shall be taken good
care of."

With returning vitality came back Maxwell's inbred obstinacy. He would
not hold his tongue, but insisted on explaining his sensations to his
comrades as they busied themselves taking off his dress--a rather
violent operation at all times, and very difficult in the circumstances.

"W'y messmates," he said, "I hadn't even time to guess wot 'ad 'appened.
Got no warnin' wotsomedever. I just felt a tree-mendous shock all of a
suddent that struck me motionless--as if Tom Sayers had hit me a
double-handed cropper on the top o' my beak an' in the pit o' my
bread-basket at one an' the same moment. Then came an 'orrible pressure
as if a two-thousand-ton ship 'ad bin let down a-top o' me, an' arter
that I remembers nothin'."

It is probable that the poor fellow would have gone on with his
comments, though he spoke with difficulty and in a feeble voice, in
which none of his characteristic gruffness remained, if he had not been
cut short by Joe Baldwin and Rooney Machowl lifting him up and carrying
him below.

Rooney, who carried his shoulders, took occasion to say while on the way
down:--

"David, boy, did ye find anny treasure?"

"No;--see'd nothin'."

"Ow, ow, worse luck!" sighed Rooney.

Maxwell was made comfortable with a glass of weak brandy and water--
hot--and his comrades returned on deck, where they found Edgar
Berrington commencing to put on the diving-dress.

"Goin' down, sir?" inquired Joe.

"Yes. We have fortunately another air-tube, and I want to complete the
work we have begun."

"Is there not a risk," whispered Aileen to her father, "that the same
accident may happen again?"

"Ah, true," answered Mr Hazlit aloud; "the water appears to be very
deep, Mr Berrington. Do you not think it probable that the air-tube
may burst a second time?"

"I think not," replied Edgar, as he sat down to have his helmet affixed
to the dress. "The best made articles are liable to possess flaws.
Even the most perfect railway-wheel, in which the cleverest engineer
alive might fail to detect a fault, may conceal a danger